Name: Kapil Dev Ramlal Nikhanj
Born: 6 January 1959, Chandigarh
State: Haryana
Sport: Cricket
Early life and domestic career
Kapil Dev made his first-class debut for Haryana in November 1975, against Punjab, taking six wickets and bowling the side out for 63. He finished that first season with 121 wickets in 30 matches. He also played county cricket in England for Northamptonshire from 1981 to 1983 and for Worcestershire in 1984 and 1985. He first captained Haryana in the 1979-80 season, against Uttar Pradesh, taking a five-wicket haul in the second innings of that match. His best domestic performance came in the 1990-91 Ranji Trophy, when he scored 141 and took five wickets in the semi-final against Bengal, then took three more wickets as Haryana won the final to become national champions.
Test and one-day career
He made his Test debut against Pakistan in October 1978, taking his first Test wicket – Sadiq Mohammad – in that match, and played his last Test in 1994. He took over the India captaincy in 1982. Across 131 Tests he scored 5,248 runs at an average of 31.05, with eight centuries, and took 434 wickets at 29.64, including two ten-wicket hauls in a match and a best of 9 for 83 against West Indies at Motera Stadium, Ahmedabad, in November 1983 – a match India lost. He remains the only player in Test history to pass both 5,000 runs and 400 wickets. He went past Richard Hadlee’s world record of 431 Test wickets in 1994; Courtney Walsh overtook his mark in 2000. In 225 one-day internationals he scored 3,783 runs at 23.79 and took 253 wickets at 27.45, and was the first bowler to reach 200 ODI wickets by the time he retired in 1994.
The 1983 World Cup
Kapil led India to the 1983 World Cup at the age of 24, still the youngest captain to win the tournament. His innings of 175 not out against Zimbabwe at Tunbridge Wells on 18 June 1983, made after India had slumped to 17 for 5, included an unbroken 126-run ninth-wicket stand with Syed Kirmani that stood as a world record partnership for 27 years. In the final at Lord’s, India beat the two-time defending champions West Indies; Kapil’s running catch to dismiss Viv Richards, taken while backpedalling, remains one of the most replayed moments in Indian cricket. He also led India to the 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia and to Asia Cup titles in 1988 and 1990-91. Wisden named him the Indian Cricketer of the Century in 2002.
After cricket
Kapil coached the Indian team in 1999-2000 and chaired the National Cricket Academy from 2006 to 2007. In 2000, former player Manoj Prabhakar accused him of attempting to bribe him in 1994; both the BCCI and a CBI inquiry cleared him of the allegation. In May 2007 he joined the breakaway Indian Cricket League as chairman of its executive board; the BCCI responded by cutting off pensions to all ICL-linked players, and Kapil was removed as NCA chairman the day after he addressed an ICL press conference. He resigned from the ICL in July 2012. He has written four books – By God’s Decree (1985), Cricket My Style (1987), Straight from the Heart (2004) and We, The Sikhs (2019) – and appeared in the 2021 film 83, about the World Cup win. He was a founding member of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation in 2000, alongside Ian Botham and Viv Richards, and was appointed the first chancellor of Haryana’s Sports University in 2019, and in October 2020 he suffered a heart attack that required emergency angioplasty, after which he made a full recovery. He married Romi Bhatia in 1980; their daughter Amiya was born in 1996.
Achievements and awards
Arjuna Award (1979-80), Padma Shri (1982), Wisden Cricketer of the Year (1983), Padma Bhushan (1991), Wisden Indian Cricketer of the Century (2002), ICC Cricket Hall of Fame (2010), C. K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award (2013), Bharat Gaurav Award (2019).
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
